Research Interests

Biography

Linzhao Cheng, PhD, the Edythe Harris Lucas and Clara Lucas Lynn Professor of Hematology, is a professor of medicine, oncology and gynecology/obstetrics. He is a founding member of the Stem Cell Program in the Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Cheng is also the associate director for basic research in the Division of Hematology. Cheng received his Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics from The Johns Hopkins University in 1991 and joined its faculty in 1999.

While a doctoral student, Dr. Cheng worked on human DNA replication models and transcriptional factors, including one of the first two DNA-binding proteins from mammalian cells (NF-I/CTF). He initiated his stem cell research career as a postdoctoral fellow, helping establish mouse pluripotent stem cell lines from primordial germ cells, a landmark study published in Nature in 1992. Since 1994, his research has focused on human stem cell biology and cell engineering. Dr. Cheng led groups within the industry and at Johns Hopkins and has published more than 78 original research papers, including those in Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics, Cell, Stem Cell, Blood, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His lab is currently focused on using human stem cells for blood disease modeling and treatment.

Dr. Cheng's involvement in stem cell research has included investigations at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in the biotech industry, and as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins. He was the recipient of the USA Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2003. In 2012, Dr. Cheng was elected as a fellow of American Association for Advancement of Sciences (AAAS). Dr. Cheng also received an award in 2004 from National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC) to promote international collaborations. He has served frequently as a reviewer/adviser for granting agencies including the NIH, NSF (USA), Cancer Research UK, Canada FFI, Swiss NSF, NSFC, and STCSM (Shanghai) and as an editorial board member for Stem Cells (USA), Regenerative Medicine (UK), and Cell Research (China). Dr. Cheng is a member of the International Affairs Committee for the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), the Stem Cell Policy and Ethics (SCoPE) Program at The Johns Hopkins University, and the (international) Hinxton Group focusing on stem cell policies and ethics.

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Research Summary

The Cheng lab studies human stem cell biology and engineering to develop experimental models of and treatments for human blood diseases. The team has made several discoveries in understanding human stem cell self-renewal and hematopoietic (blood-forming) differentiation using adult hematopoietic stem cells and human pluripotent stem cells. They also poineered recently efficient methods to establish human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from both blood cells and fibroblasts by plasmids without integrating into cellular chromosomes. In effort to develop better genetic models and gene therapy methods, the Cheng lab develops new methods for making genetic modifications in human cells using various methods such as human genome editing.

Lab:

Dr. Cheng's main laboratory is working on human stem cell biology and engineering, and their applications in regenerative medicine for curing blood diseases. One of their objectives is to understand genetic and epigenetic regulation of cell fate determination in hematopoiesis. The group currently focuses on using human pluripotent stem such as iPS cells from healthy donors and patients. They use both cellular differentiation and genetic approaches such as genome editing to orrect or create mutations in human stem cells. Their goals is to investigate human stem cell biology and diseases. More details are available on his lab website www.stemcelllab.org